Bookvica

[TO KANDINSKY FROM HIS YOUNGER AVANT-GARDE BROTHER] Russkaia ikona kak iskusstvo zhivopisi [i.e. The Russian Icon As The Art of Painting]

Gritchenko, A.

Item #551

Moscow: Izd. avtora, [1917]. [2], 266 pp.: ill. 26,5x18,5 cm. In original covers with mounted illustration. Small fragments of spine lost, broken spine - p. 209-266 detached.

First and only edition. Very rare. #500 of 500 copies. Autograph with inscription for Vasily Kandinsky: “To the artist Vasily Vasilievich Kandinsky from author / artist A.V. Gritchenko / 1918, 22 XI”. No marks show that the book went through the postal service, so it probably was given personally - at that time both artists were in Moscow.
This is the work by Alexis Gritchenko (Oleksa Hryshchenko; 1883-1977), the Ukrainian painter and art theorist who took part in exhibitions with Kandinsky, Malevich, Popova, Shagal (et al.), was a member of the Commission for the Preservation of Historic Monuments (together with Kandinsky) and taught in VKhUTEMAS until his emigration. In 1919, after his show ‘Dynamocolor’ he escaped to Constantinople and Paris. All artworks were given to students and his name was forgotten. Gritchenko was well-known for experiments with cubism and primitive art, using elements of the Russian icons, the Ukrainian lubok and the Italian frescos. One of his favorite topics, the Russian icon painting was analyzed in his lecture ‘How and Why We Came Up to the Russian Icon’ and this book became the enlarged and richly illustrated version. It is a complete copy with 110 mounted zincographies.
Paper copies located at Princeton University, University of Cincinnati, NYPL, Getty Research Institute, Harvard College, UC Berkeley Libraries, The Morgan Library.

Sold